TEHRAN — In a statement on Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said a provincial Canadian court has no jurisdiction to rule on a claim for damages over the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran in January 2020.

“The ruling in question has no basis and lacks any objective evidence and reason,” ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

“Given that the verdict is available online, we invite those interested in such issues to study the court ruling to realize that it is groundless,” Khatibzadeh added.

However, the spokesman said, it is not surprising to see that Canada disregards the fundamental and basic legal principles, given the overall behavior of the country with regards to the air accident.

He further dismissed as “regrettable” Canada’s behavior with regards to the Ukrainian plane incident and the “completely politically-tainted” approach adopted by Canada during the course of the legal proceedings in the country.

The Ukrainian passenger plane was mistaken for an invading missile. The tragic incident happened after Iran fired missiles at a U.S. military based in western Iraq in response to the assassination of Iranian Lt. General Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad’s international airport.   

“By following in the footsteps of American courts, this Canadian court first named the accused, and then resorted to whatever relevant or irrelevant information available in public sources, especially in the cyberspace, to find a reason for its biased and pre-determined mentality,” Khatibzadeh added.

He reminded Ottawa that such politically-motivated and vexatious moves will have no outcome other than disrupting the legal order ruling international aviation law and undercutting international law in general and harming all countries, including Canada itself.

The spokesman once again condoled with families of the victims, saying, “The political gestures of the Canadian government can only be interpreted as doing business with the grief and sorrow of the bereaved families and survivors of the accident and playing with their sentiments in order to achieve its short-sighted political objectives,” Khatibzadeh added.

Also, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, spokesman for the Guardian Council, said that the Canadian court’s ruling is illegitimate, as the court is far from the incident’s jurisdiction. 

He posed the question: “Are Iranian courts legitimate to issue ruling over accidents in Canada?”

SA/PA